THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ACCORDING TO JAMES JOYCE

The main element of style, in Ulysses, is the use of the stream of consciousness in its basic form of interior monologue.

The stream of consciousness is, in fact, to be intended as a psycological category, and it indicates the casual association of thoughts, impressions and emotions of a person who is not thinking intentionally but is letting his her mind flow freely.

In this form it had sometimes appeared in writing of Victorian novelists, but it was only the English writer Dorothy Richardson and the French writer Dujardin who made regular use of it, although in novels of minor revelance.

The use of stream of consciousness secured two results:

– it allowed the reader to have an insight into the mind of a character, showing its rational and irrational sides;

– it liberated the novel from the cumbersome presence of the narrator.

The interior monologue opened a new ground for exploration of the human mind, not only organised conscious moments, but also in the moments in which it abandons itself to the casual associations causes by external stimuli or by words and impressions it has come into contact with, and has no control over.

THE STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS ACCORDING TO JAMES JOYCEultima modifica: 2013-12-23T09:11:32+01:00da admin